The Edge Is What I Have
by PinkFreud
Summary: The god of Lies seemed to be telling the truth an awful lot lately. But that was just a fortunate coincidence, he rationalized. Darcy just made it so easy for him. DarcyxLoki.Post-Thor, no 'Avengers'.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Ok, anyone who has ever read my writing knows that I have an incredible weakness for bad boys and anti-heroes. Especially ones with that oh-so-sexy lean and hungry look. My latest obsession is obviously Loki, and I actually have been struggling quite hard with this story. It's not quite as good as I would like so far, but it is a work in progress. I recently got engaged to my longtime boyfriend (_Yippeeeee!_) AND got a fantastic new job that demands a lot of my time so I can't necessarily guarantee super-quick updates but I will try my damnedest, especially since I've become addicted to the Darcy/Loki pairing. And, as always, I love you all and think you are wonderful.**

* * *

_It was the most sickening feeling, like tumbling into cold nothingness that stung your skin and even your insides over and over again while you felt your stomach dropping clean out of you, like you were being dissolved and reformed. He knew where he needed to go, and he grasped and clung. Somehow, throughout all this his mind was still intact, and he knew that his abilities were still powerful enough that he could get himself there if he focused hard enough. _

_And then after an impossible amount of time spent falling, he felt like he was being struck suddenly with an electrical current so powerful that his bones seemed to rattle. He heard a loud cracking sound and then came the pull of gravity dragging him down to solid earth with a fury. He lay there, momentarily unable to breathe. It felt like a leaden weight had crushed his chest. After a few seconds that seemed like eons, he was finally able to force his lungs to expand, painfully. The ground was cold. And there, above him, was a sky that he knew well enough. He had made it to Midgard, the closest relative location that he could transport himself safely to while using only wits, magick, and sheer dumb luck. A slow grin snaked across his dry, cracked lips and then he began to laugh. It was a horrible sound, like the scraping of sandpaper, like a hiss. The grin forced his papery lips to split and blood began to trickle down his chin, but he paid it no mind. It took hours until he could move enough to sit up, and even then, the dizziness and nausea overtook him and knocked him back down again for more hours. It wasn't until the sky changed color with the rising sun that he could finally stand. Weakened, but not defeated. Loki smiled, and more blood fell but he didn't care._

_It took him only two days to regain his strength. His powers, he noticed with delight, had not left him, and did not appear to be dulled. He would have no trouble in this realm, it seemed. Everyone was so eager to see only what they wanted to see, and to pay no mind to what they didn't care about. This would be such as easy world to overthrow…it would tremble and bend beneath his hand. But all of that could come later. He had nothing but time._

* * *

**Three Days Later**

It was raining, and raining hard. A freak thunderstorm had blown in seemingly out of nowhere, blotting out the earlier sunshine of the day and drenching everything in abysmal darkness and water.

''_Just freakin' great_,'' Darcy Lewis thought dejectedly as she stood huddled beneath a restaurant awning to shield her from this awful new development in the weather. She was only a few blocks from home but she was weighed down with a backpack full of books _and_ she also happened to be wearing a brand new pair of fairly expensive shoes, the one indulgence that Darcy had allowed herself this month.

Besides that, she was quite tired and wanted nothing more than to change into her _South Park_ pajamas, and watch whatever was next in her Netflix queue while eating macaroni and cheese and slurping sweet coconut rum mixed with lots of pineapple juice. Darcy sighed wearily, realizing that she was going to have to make a run for it, as the rain did not seem to be letting up the slightest bit.

Crossing her fingers while uttering a silent prayer, she darted out into the downpour, oblivious to the fact that a pair of sharp blue-green eyes had been watching her the entire time.

_Pretty thing, you are_, Loki thought to himself as he observed her, unseen. The scientist's little assistant. Dark hair, blue eyes, creamy skin…there were worse things to spend your time looking at. She was clumsy, out of place, not seeming to blend or match with any of her surroundings, ever. Immune to camouflage. He felt a pull to her, irrelevant though she probably was. He had originally intended to follow the other mortal, Jane—Thor's woman. No doubt there would be something valuable in her research that could be of use to him, and he _had_ followed her for the better part of the previous day, but he found her insufferably boring. She gave him a headache. Though the woman of science was quite pretty, she was too thin and brittle-looking. Her mind moved so fast it seemed to wear her body down to nearly bones. Her theories were _very_ attractive, but the god of Lies could certainly find other ways of getting at them without having to endure the woman's presence directly.

Fortunately, one of the things that Loki was quite talented at was slipping around unnoticed, able to make himself completely invisible if he wished. As if these Midgardians ever noticed anything anyway—most of them spent their days staring intently at screens on various devices. He doubted very much that they'd even look up if the sky was crashing down around them.

Loki's lips squirmed into a semblance of a smile. His mind was made up. He needed to indulge his curiosity a bit, and so he followed the girl. She lit up against the grayness of the day, bright colors moving quickly between raindrops.

But he was quicker, of course, and he was already there when she arrived.

* * *

Darcy was drenched by the time she crashed through the door of her small apartment, her glasses foggy and her hair hanging down in dripping tendrils. She shed her jacket and removed her glasses, then headed into the tiny kitchen, grabbed a dishtowel from the counter, and began to wipe off the wet lenses.

A grin, a real and devious grin, curved the corners of Loki's mouth as he couldn't help but notice that she had quite a voluptuous figure, only emphasized more by the wet clothing that clung to her body. There was nothing brittle-looking about this woman, he noted with what could reasonably be called delight.

Darcy's cell phone rang suddenly, slicing through the quiet and making her jump. Then she simply looked tired and annoyed. ''What _now_?'' she groaned. Putting her glasses quickly back on, Darcy snatched her phone from the coffee table and answered it. The expression on her face shifted slightly. ''Seriously, Jane?'' A small smile began to form on her full lips. ''_You_ want to go out to the bar? Oh, god, I _cannot_ miss this, of course I'll come with! Just let me get a shower and stuff. Uh-huh. Sweet, I'll meet you there in a few. Bye''

Darcy ended the call and laughed out loud in spite of her previously grim mood. Shaking her head, she pulled her wet shirt off and headed into the bathroom. Jane actually wanted to go out? This was totally new. But then again, ever since that huge, sexy god of Thunder had fallen out of the sky and then disappeared again, Jane hadn't exactly been acting like herself. But at least she didn't seem to be moping sadly about it, in fact, it was almost as if knowing Thor for however brief a time they'd spent together had re-ignited a spark inside of Jane, making her seem almost more alive, and more excited about her work and research, if that was possible. Darcy, on the other hand, was still single, still poor, and still just…well…the same. Netflix and mac-n-cheese and coconut rum. But that was ok. That was normal. Still, it frustrated her a little, but the young woman shook the feelings away as she turned on the shower. Then she wandered back out into the little living room, snatched her new iPod out of her purse and plugged it into her admittedly rather impressive stereo system. Music and shoes were her first loves and ultimate priorities. Well, those and rare, out-of print books, but that was way too dorky an obsession to admit to anyone. Eventually, Darcy felt, quirkiness easily crossed the lines into the territory of _Sad_. She set the device to shuffle and Radiohead's ''Let Down'' began to play. While the water heated up, she shed the rest of her clothes and hummed softly to herself.

_I am funny. I am kind. Well, most of the time. But I am also a badass when I to be. __I am a force to be reckoned with. _These were her mantras, every day. Except that she wasn't really as brave as she hoped she seemed, and poor, huge, bumbling Thor was the first person she'd ever actually tased. And though Darcy would never admit it, she hadn't merely been the trigger-happy rebel sidekick that night. She had been legitimately freaked out. It seemed quite funny, now, but not at the time. _I am funny I am kind I am…._

''Tonight'', Darcy told herself, ''will be fun. Forget the rain, forget my poor shoes. I'll just go out, get a little crazy, maybe get a few phone numbers…''

As she turned to step into the shower, Darcy was struck with the odd sensation of someone watching her. She whirled around, but obviously there was nobody there. She shrugged and stepped in under the spray. Loki, still watching her intently, swallowed hard. This woman was physically stunning for a mortal, he couldn't deny that. It had been quite some time since the god of Lies had given much thought to a woman, he'd always been too busy with all of his various plans. Always most of his focus had remained on outsmarting and outwitting all those who would doubt him. Revenge was draining and all-consuming. He'd almost forgotten the feeling of physical desire. It startled him a little.

Loki shook his head to clear it but found that he still had trouble pulling his eyes away from her. It was slightly disorienting. And this girl also seemed to be able to sense him, somehow. She was even more perceptive, it seemed, than he'd given her credit for.

As Darcy shampooed her hair, she was once again struck by the intense feeling of being watched. Though a strong sensation, it was not completely unpleasant. Rather, Darcy realized, it felt as though someone's gaze was sliding seductively over her body. It made her skin lightly tingle. ''All right, Mr. Ghost,'' she called out jokingly, ''eat your heart out!'' She threw back her head and struck a seductive pose, then laughed to herself. After she'd finished, Darcy quickly dressed and put on some makeup. Loki, still unseen and staring, briefly hated himself for taking such a sudden…personal interest in this silly mortal. But, he reasoned with himself, the more that he knew about her, the easier it might be to…to what? What was his plan exactly? He had always prided himself on being cunning and calculating but now it seemed apparent even to him that he was becoming something of a voyeur and a pervert. Again, he rationalized that he was learning the girl's habits, her personality, her…well, never mind.

Loki stared as Darcy put the finishing touches on her lipstick, blotted it, then grinned widely at her own reflection in the mirror, feeling satisfied. ''Right on, sexy,'' she said, trying to believe it. ''Maybe we'll even get lucky tonight!'' She chuckled, believing _that_ even less, then headed out into the living room where she grabbed her purse. After double checking for her keys and wallet, the two things that she somehow _always_ managed to forget, she left the apartment.

He grinned fiendishly as he watched her go, and then allowed himself to materialize. He was starting to get an idea, and it made him slightly dizzy with unholy glee—it could lead to an even more brilliant opportunity, or it might go absolutely nowhere, but would definitely be worth it. ''Maybe we _will_ get lucky tonight,'' he said aloud into the empty room, sandpapery hissing velvet whispers bouncing off the walls.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N I forgot the obligatory disclaimer in the first chapter so here: I own nothing. And the title comes from a line in the poem ''In a Dark Time'' by Theodore Roethke. Enjoy.  
**

* * *

It had stopped raining, and you could even see the beginnings of stars. It was actually turning into a nice evening, Darcy mused as she walked up the street to Hemingway's, a bar frequented by students and faculty alike. She did a quick survey of the interior when she stepped through the door. The place was pretty full; it was a Friday night, after all. Darcy waved to the tiny blonde bartender, Kimbra, who smiled at her and waved back. She finally spotted Jane, who was seated at the opposite side of the bar, looking both gorgeous and severe as always, stirring her drink with a straw while pretending to be interested in what was being said by an older, gray-haired man who had parked himself next to her and was talking excitedly about something.

''Probably a physicist,'' thought Darcy wearily. Older scientists were often drawn to Jane because, aside from being a hottie, she was already somewhat of an expert in her field. Noticing Darcy, Jane shot her that 'please-save-me' look that women universally understand. Darcy plastered a huge smile on her face and walked over to them. ''Hey Jane!'' she said loudly and brightly, ''I finally made it! Boy, wait till I tell you about the day I've had!'' She gestured emphatically with her hands, trying to indicate to the guy that she and Jane had important things to discuss. The gray-haired man shifted, looking a little crestfallen. ''Well, I suppose I'll just leave you ladies to catch up,'' he said resignedly. Then he turned to Jane and said, with a slightly revolting smile, ''A pleasure to talk with you, Jane. Please do remember to call me if you ever need any help with your research. Perhaps we could discuss it over dinner sometime?''

''May-be'', replied Jane noncommittally, punctuating her words with the faintest hint of ice. As he walked away, Darcy sat down in the now thankfully vacant seat by her friend and started to laugh. ''Don't start,'' the scientist groaned, brushing her chestnut-colored hair out of her face.

''Let me guess,'' the younger woman began in a sing-song voice, ''he's a professor of quantum physics, he likes jazz, and he collects rocks.''

''Close,'' admitted Jane, taking a huge sip of her drink, ''He's a research scientist specializing in particle theory, his favorite band is Phish, of all things in the universe, and he has one of the world's largest collections of _TV Guides_. Oh, and apparently he's very familiar with my research.''

''It looked like he was trying to get a little _too_ familiar with your _research_ if you know what I mean.'' Darcy made a face. Jane shook her head. ''He was actually nice, just kind of goofy.''

''And completely _gray_,'' Darcy motioned for the bartender.

''He was distinguished, I think you call it,'' the scientist corrected, draining her glass completely. A stray drop of liquid slid down the side of her face, and she brushed it away.

Darcy raised an eyebrow. ''He wasn't exactly Anderson Cooper, Jane. He was a gray-haired, aging, TV Guide-collecting Phish head who spends his days theorizing about particles, probably those super- fancy hypothetical ones that _Scientific American_ is always going on about.''

''A boson?'' supplied Jane, smiling.

''Yeah, one of _those_. Those bosons get him _very_ excited. Give it up, Jane. You don't have to be nice all of the time just because you feel sorry for these weirdos.''

Jane started laughing then, and Darcy relaxed to see that her friend was having a good time. She ordered a rum and coke for herself and another vodka and cranberry juice for Jane, and then the two women began to chat about their days. Jane laughed while Darcy described her ordeal dashing through the rain and ruining her designer shoes.

''And this was a sign from the gods that I must never, ever again spend half of my rent money on shoes, no matter how sexy and cute those shoes may be, or they will smite me!'' Darcy giggled and sat her now-empty glass down. She was about to say something else when she once again began to feel that odd tingly sensation on her skin, along with the strong feeling of being watched, or rather _admired_ was probably the better word.

Darcy put a hand against her chest. ''There it is again!'' she whispered loudly.

''What?'' asked Jane, now starting on her third vodka-cran, ''your boobs? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there's two of them, they've been there awhile, and they haven't been exactly quiet about it.'' Delighted by her own wit, Jane started giggling. Darcy pulled her hand away from her chest and slapped her friend playfully on the arm. ''I'm serious! I was in my apartment earlier, taking a shower, and I swear it felt like there was someone in my apartment watching me. It gives me this weird tingling feeling on my skin. In some really strange places. You know, like, sexy places.''

Jane raised an eyebrow, ''Like your, ahem, _bosons_,'' she deadpanned.

Since when did Jane have a sense of humor? It was nearly infuriating. _Damn, the prospect of sex with a really hot god from another dimension sure seems to do wonders for a girl's disposition_, Darcy thought before continuing, '' Yes, like _those_, among others. But the strangest part is, it also feels almost like he was…like he thought I was hot or something.''

''_He_?'' repeated Jane incredulously, almost laughing but then perhaps thinking better of it. She coughed. ''You think…what, that there's a horny male ghost following you around and sending out sexy tingle-vibes?''

Darcy sighed. Jane made the whole thing suddenly seem so ridiculous. She was a genius at that. ''Look, I have no idea. But it's a little bit freaky, whatever it is.'' She hopped up off the bar stool and quickly grabbed a couple of bills out of her wallet. ''I'm gonna go play some tunes.''

As the young brunette headed over to the electronic jukebox on the far wall of the bar, she found herself stumbling slightly in her heels and bumped into something solid. Or rather, someone. ''Ooooh, I'm sorry!'' Darcy apologized wildly, ''these shoes aren't really meant for my drinking nights!'' _God_, she thought, _can't I get through just one day without being a total hot mess_?''

''It's quite alright,'' a cool voice responded, sliding like a cube of ice across her skin on a hot day. Goosebumps suddenly erupted on her skin. Darcy then got a look at the person she'd crashed into. ''Whoa,'' she said softly, then flushed, feeling stupid and even drunker than she was. But the man standing in front of her _was_ quite a specimen. Tall and very lean, he had pale, flawless skin, black hair, and blue-green eyes that seemed to glitter a bit. Shimmering, iridescent, like snakeskin. There was something about him that suggested a serious intensity, and also possibly the faintest hint of danger.

''Hello there,'' Loki said softly, helping the staggering Darcy to stand upright in her heels again. _Ridiculous things_, he thought to himself as he studied the pair of shiny silver stilettos that she was wearing. He also noticed that her toenails were painted to match.

''Hi,'' breathed Darcy. She appeared to shake herself out of a brief trance, then said ''sorry,'' again.

''I was just trying to play some music,'' she explained. ''Whatever crap they've got on now is making my head hurt.''

Loki nodded obligingly. ''I agree. Why don't you go and do that and then maybe you'd like to join me for a drink?''

Darcy's huge blue eyes lit up at the offer. ''Sure, I'd love that. I'll be right back.'' She turned and attempted to walk once more, but then found herself nearly colliding with a server trying to balance three large glasses of beer and a plate of mozzarella sticks on a tray. Loki winced. This girl was absolutely the clumsiest person he'd witnessed yet on Midgard, and there certainly wasn't any shortage of them. But still he knew an opportunity when he saw one, and the god of Mischief had a gift for seeing almost _every _opportunity. Besides, she was amusing. And lovely.

He hurried over to Darcy's side and lightly placed a hand against her back. ''Or maybe I could walk with you,'' he offered smoothly, grinning at her.

The girl got that brief, dazed look for a moment again when her eyes met his, and Loki knew that he was off to a good start. She most definitely found him attractive, which was a very positive sign, and overall seemed quite pleased by his presence in general, if not a little flustered.

''Thanks,'' Darcy told him gratefully, ''I'm not normally such a spaz, and I'm not even really that drunk, it's just these damn shoes,'' she gestured down at her feet, encased in those terrible silver contraptions. ''I had a much better pair, they were brand new, too. But they got ruined in the rain today.''

Loki's mind flashed back to the image of Darcy in her apartment, dripping wet…removing her clothes…getting in the shower…'' he blinked, it was his turn to feel dazed, and he mentally slapped himself back to reality. Hard. The girl was clearly in mourning for her shoes. He needed to be understanding.

''I'm sorry to hear that,'' he said, with a seriousness so convincing that he was almost nauseated, taking her by the arm and steadying her once again as they walked over to the jukebox, ''I'm sure they were…lovely. And so are the ones you're wearing now. But they can't be good for your feet.''

Darcy nodded in agreement. ''Tell me about it. They hurt like a bitch. But these were my best bet for tonight, sexy-shoe-wise.'' She reached into her purse and pulled out a few bills then slid them one by one into a slot in the machine. Loki watched as she methodically selected songs by tapping images on a screen. While she worked at this, he allowed himself to study her once again. He couldn't help this, it was becoming an almost narcotic indulgence, taking in everything about her, each time discovering something new. She reminded him of a jumbled-up painting he'd seen a few days earlier by a dead Midgardian artist they called Picasso. Everything wildly out of proportion yet beautiful, all kinds of colors and shapes in unlikely harmony. Such art didn't exist in Asgard, and at the time Loki had thought that was a good thing, but now he wasn't so certain. And this whole sudden rush of poetic thinking made the god utterly queasy, as if he wanted desperately to be disgusted with himself but wasn't even sure why.

The blue light from the electronic box in front of Darcy reflected off of her glasses and her long, shiny dark hair. She looked almost reverent as she chose her silly music.

''Sorry,'' the young woman apologized to him yet again, finishing her selection and then turning back to Loki. ''I'm very serious about my tunes.'' She slipped her hand through his. ''Now, how about that drink?''

They sat at a small table in the corner, facing each other. Studying each other was probably the better word, but each had different reasons for doing so. Darcy's was more carnal; she was lonely and felt rather misplaced in her life recently. She found him very attractive, deliciously so, and there were definitely naughty thoughts swirling feverishly behind her blue eyes. Of what his skin would feel like, his mouth. His hands, beautiful hands with long slender fingers. She liked the way he made her feel.

Loki's reasons were far less simple than that.

''…and then my friend Jane invited me out tonight,'' Darcy was explaining, ''which is a little weird because she usually never goes anywhere except work and home. And sometimes not even home. But I think she's lonely because Thor left.''

Loki raised an eyebrow at her. _Here we go,_ he thought to himself, grinning inwardly. The girl was getting looser and more outspoken by the minute, and he doubted very much that it was all from the effects of alcohol; without any conscious effort on his part, she just seemed to have a very strong reaction to him. It was almost symbiotic. She was giving him exactly what he wanted without him ever having to ask for it.

''Thor?'' he repeated, pretending to sound surprised by the strangeness of the name.

''Yeah, seriously,'' Darcy nodded wildly, ''and get this—he was totally from another dimension. Like, a dimension where all those myths and stuff are actually _real_. ''

Loki forced himself to act the way any normal Midgardian man would in this unlikely situation: he pretended not to believe her, acted as though she might be a slightly mad, or just perhaps had a very odd sense of humor. He pretended to play along, let her think she was leading the dance. It almost really did feel like they were dancing.

''Really?'' he said, smirking at her. ''Did he have a hammer as well?''

''Yes! Meow-Meow!'' Darcy exclaimed, taking a sip of her drink.

Loki couldn't help it, he laughed out loud at the horrid mispronunciation. ''Meow-Meow? That's…absolutely fascinating.''

He paused a moment, then asked, ''And does your friend Jane have any idea how she might be able to see..uh…_Thor_ again? Considering that he's gone back home to his own rea-ah, _dimension_?''

Darcy shrugged. ''She's monitoring the skies, basically. Trying to predict the thing that brought him here in the first place, the Einstein-somebody Bridge. See, it's like a wormhole that people can travel through.''

Loki nodded, still pretending to humor her, still pretending to play along. He was beginning to very much enjoy this game he'd begun. It would pay off soon enough. ''But if it is an anomaly and appears to be random, then how can she have any way of knowing if it will ever happen again?''

Darcy thought about this for a moment before answering. ''Well,'' she said, ''I guess she'll just refuse to give up. I know Jane. She's totally obsessive about something once she puts her mind to it. Even if she can't predict these wormholes or whatever, she'll probably just invent a way to _create_ one. But actually, now that you mention it, she thought that she recorded one about a week ago, but 'the data was inconclusive', ''Darcy made air quotes with her fingers and rolled her eyes. ''That's Jane's scientific way of saying that Thor didn't show up.'' She grew thoughtful for a moment, resting her chin on her hand, staring out at the other faces in the bar around her, then turned back and looked Loki in the eyes again, a smile returning to her face. ''She seriously misses him. I've never seen her so hung up on a guy.''

Then Darcy's smile grew. ''I think it was the hammer,'' she joked, ''Jane wanted some hammer action of her own. '' Then she dissolved helplessly into a fit of giggles. It was nearly sweet.

After he watched her for a moment with a sudden strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't define, Loki decided that it was finally the right time for introductions. ''You know, darling,'' he began smoothly, dropping his voice into that low, silky register that seemed to affect her positively, ''I'm afraid that while you've told me quite a bit about your friend Jane, I still don't even know your name.''

Darcy slapped herself on the forehead. ''Seriously? I can't believe that. I rambled on so much….'' Suddenly, everything she'd just told him seemed to flood back to her in a crushing wave. She blinked wildly. ''Oh, you must think I'm completely nuts! This was not the way I wanted to come across to you at all, but you're so…sexy…and British—I think. Oh cripes, I don't even know if you're British or not, I don't know your name, and all because I've been running off at the mouth about…crazy sounding stuff. This is not how I am most of the time, trust me.'' She looked so distressed, so blisteringly awkward that Loki almost truly felt bad. Instead, he just pretended to. Or so he hoped.

''Please don't worry about it. I've had a wonderful time hearing your stories. You…have a very lively mind, and it's very entertaining. I don't think I've laughed quite so hard in a long time.'' That part was not a lie.

''You're sure?'' Darcy asked hopefully.

''I'm sure. And I also find you…very beautiful.'' That part was also not a lie.

The young woman's face lit up. She looked breathless, probably with relief but also with something else. ''You're kinda beautiful, too,'' she said softly, then extended her hand. ''I'm Darcy Lewis.'' He laced his fingers through hers and was sure that he felt her tremble a little, could feel the throb of her heart. ''Delighted to make your acquaintance, Darcy,'' he replied. This was becoming almost too easy. She was sliding into this dance perfectly. ''I'm Loki.'' _Not a lie_.

He grinned at her mischievously, and Darcy's blue eyes widened before she began to laugh. ''Hey, no fair! You don't need to tease me about that. I swear I don't know why I told you all that stuff. Come on, what's your real name?''

He laughed along with her. It _was_ all rather amusing, if you had a twisted sort of mind. Loki put his hands in the air in an ironic gesture of sincerity. ''I swear, darling, that's my real name. Probably not as uncommon as you might think. It's just a strange coincidence, given everything that you were talking about earlier. And as I said, I love hearing your stories.''

''A strange coincidence,'' repeated Darcy. She seemed to be turning something over in her mind, spinning it like a kaleidoscope.

''Or fate, perhaps. I also have a lively imagination.'' He gazed at her with a wicked intensity like liquid mercury and Darcy could see that he did, and entertained all of the things that two people with lively imaginations could accomplish together. She felt a slow throb begin between her legs, like a heartbeat.

''Ok, then,'' she whispered, her mouth gone suddenly dry. ''Loki it is. Mind walking me home tonight? Now that we know each other and all.''

''I'd love to, Darcy, and I hope we get to know each other much better.'' _Not a lie_. She was practically throwing herself on him. Her arousal seemed to radiate off of her in waves, like an aura. He could smell it. Loki felt strangely flattered.

''That would be nice,'' whispered Darcy. She texted good-bye to Jane, apologizing for ditching her, saying that she was fine and would explain everything later. _Please don't fire me,_ she added silently._ Why should you be the one that gets to have all the fun?_

**A/N The name of the bar that Darcy and Jane go to, Hemingway's, is an actual bar in Pittsburgh, PA and it is pretty much as described. They also have the best freakin grilled cheese sandwiches within a hundred miles. **


	3. Chapter 3

Darcy practically dragged Loki through the front door of her apartment, announcing, ''this is where I live!'' Not that it was anything to be too proud of, it was a tiny one-bedroom apartment but at least she had decorated it fairly nicely. And it was clean.

Loki glanced around, pretending that he hadn't already seen where she lived. ''It's very nice,'' he offered.

''You wanna sit down?'' Darcy motioned to the couch. He nodded and they sat down beside one another. She sighed loudly. ''My feet are killing me, I need to get these shoes off.'' Darcy moved to reach down but wound up crashing her arm against a stack of books on the small table next to her and knocking them all to the floor.

She briefly wanted to cry.

Loki shook his head, biting back a smile. ''Don't worry about it. Let me help you.'' He motioned for her to set her foot on his knee. Looking curious, she leaned back against the cushions and did so, and he took her foot in his hands and began methodically unbuckling the many straps on her shoes. ''I still don't understand why you feel the need to wear these,'' he murmured softly, sliding his hand along her skin. _Not a lie_. He really didn't understand. The poor idiot was torturing herself for no apparent reason. Midgardians were an absurdly masochistic lot.

Darcy was going wonderfully numb with the feeling of his long, cool fingers on her aching foot. It seemed oddly sinful. He slid the shoe off and set it down on the floor. It hit the cheap wood with a clatter that echoed. She gladly offered him her other foot and he did the same. ''I like to look nice,'' she replied, then hissed lightly in pain as his fingers brushed over a spot where the straps had gouged her skin and left a raw, nearly bloody red mark. ''That doesn't look nice,'' he explained, as if she were simple. Loki brushed his fingers gently over the open wound again. Darcy shuddered, gasping a little.

He was attempting to at least pretend at empathy, but this was becoming a bit much. The woman was mutilating herself in some misguided attempt at beauty. ''These shoes don't even fit properly. You know, you might be a lot more graceful if you had better footwear.''

Darcy snorted, clearly paying him no mind. ''Thanks for the tip,'' she said, tossing back her thick, dark hair. He was still holding her foot. She felt like Cinderella in reverse. ''But no, seriously,'' she added, ''thanks. I appreciate you saving me from my shoes.''

The god looked at her with an odd expression, then gave up. He released her foot, mumbling ''you're welcome.''

''Hey,'' the strange little woman said, sliding closer to him with an earnest look in her eyes, ''I had a lot of fun tonight.''

''Me too,'' he said. _Not a lie? Maybe a lie? Yesnoyesno._ This realm was beginning to play tricks with his mind, and the god of Mischief did not care to be toyed with.

''So, listen, um…'' Darcy started, stumbling over her own words, not quite sure how to phrase what she wanted to say next. Then she steadied herself and continued, ''If you want, maybe we could hang out again sometime. And I'll promise never to wear those shoes. ''

''I'd like that.'' _He would like that but he shouldn't like that._ _She is nothing. She is a game. A pretty little piece to move around on a board. Pretty thing, yes she is. _But she was so endearingly clumsy and real that something twisted painfully in his chest like an icy knife.

Loki couldn't help it; he was so sure that she was going to kiss him and he was just _waiting_ but suddenly he didn't want to wait anymore, she was too pretty and too inviting. So he leaned over and kissed her instead, taking her momentarily by surprise. _He took himself by surprise too, though he'd never admit it. _

_What happened to make you so soft?_ An echo, cruel and menacing. The sinister icy edge of a familiar voice startled him and Loki was temporarily thrown off balance. Falling off the edge of everything.

Then Darcy was delighted, deepening the kiss, winding her arms around his neck and tangling her fingers through his hair. She wanted him, badly. Her body was very close to his, and he could feel heat radiating off of her, could hear her heart slamming wildly in her chest. She was screaming for him and he hadn't even really influenced her mind at all. She thought he was a normal man that she'd bumped into at the bar. A man who had a strange name and a lively mind and made her laugh and confess things. A man that she would invite over and allow to take off her shoes, and he knew that she wanted him to want her.

Loki felt acutely and absurdly jealous of this man he was pretending to be. All he wanted was to get her even closer, and that was a dangerous feeling. He gently broke the kiss and pulled away from her slightly. Darcy looked disappointed, but understanding. Her face was flushed and her eyes were wild and hungry. She drew in a breath. ''I guess you'd better go before we get a little too crazy, huh?'' she whispered.

He nodded. ''I think that would be wise.'' _He wasn't sure that he understood wisdom anymore._

''Would you maybe like to meet me tomorrow for coffee or something if you're not busy?'' she blurted quickly. ''It's Saturday and all…I mean, I don't know, maybe you work on Saturdays or you have some other plans like maybe…''

He put a finger against her lips to silence her. _Silence, mortal. My darling, breakable creature._ ''Tomorrow sounds wonderful, I'm not busy, and I'm already looking forward to it.'' _Not a lie not a lie not a lie._ There was clearly something wrong with him. He wanted to eat her alive.

''Sweet!'' Darcy exclaimed. ''I just have to stop by the library in the morning to grab a couple of articles for Jane. Why don't you meet me there around 11 and then we can get like, brunch or something?''

''I guess I'll see you then,'' agreed Loki. He stood up to leave and she followed him to the door. He opened it, then turned back to her. ''See you,'' she murmured softly. Her lips were reddened from kissing, and her long hair was tousled around her shoulders. There was a happy, dazed look in her eyes, like she was on some sort of natural opiate.

_Do I make her feel that way_? He wondered.

_No, idiot, _he answered himself, in a raspy, cruel, almost hysterical voice that he dreaded to recognize as his own. _You're pretending to be someone who makes her feel that way. That's the point. If she saw the real you, she'd scream and run. You're cold. You're a monster, mustn't forget that. This is an act, a means to an end. Make the girl comfortable, make her trust you, and she'll give you anything you want. You can have her. You can twist her and bend her and….. _These thoughts pained him; they felt like a knife stabbing through his mind.

The god of Lies seemed to be telling the truth an awful lot lately. But that was just a fortunate coincidence, he rationalized. Darcy just made it so easy for him. _Darcy, Darcy, Darcy._ His mouth went dry with her name echoing around like lightning in his addled brain.

Then, it seemed, that lightning obliterated all sense of reason and he changed his mind. Slow and calculating would not do tonight, for either of them. His body was burning up; an irony, he knew, but the bastard frost giant felt like he had been lit on fire. He turned around in the doorway, grabbing Darcy with one arm and dragging her close against him, close enough so that she would most definitely understand how very much he wanted her. Her eyes opened wider in startled surprise, she gasped a little, part wonder, part shameless desire. Then she responded, wrapping her arms around him, attacking him with her mouth and her hands, struggling blindly with his clothes, trying to drag them off of his body as quickly as possible. She was a trembling, writhing collection of nerves in a too-fragile mortal casing of skin.

Then she was out of her own clothes and wrapped all around him and her hair was loose and crazy and it brushed against his skin and then they were both in her bedroom although he wasn't certain who had dragged who there. Her sweet mouth found every sensitive place on his body and he closed his eyes for a moment to steady himself because he felt like he was spinning off of the edge of something again, and he needed to have that control back, he couldn't let this little mortal witch with her soft full lips and her lush inviting body just make him _forget_ everything and for a moment he was hypnotized, dangerously close to forgetting who he was and why he was there.

_You're cold. You're a monster._

_But a monster who must play this part. Must pretend._

He was going to lose his mind. That wouldn't do at all.

Loki grabbed her wrists—_gently_—he reminded himself, but with enough force to make her look up and stare him in the eyes. He gripped her arms and pushed them back, pinning them above her head. She stared, yes, and looked startled, but then she _smiled,_ the little demon.

''You know, I do have a pair of handcuffs around here somewhere,'' Darcy said playfully with a devious smile on her face.

Loki didn't know how to answer that, but he let go of her hands then and simply allowed himself to look at her for a moment. Just an instant so that he could memorize the beautiful naked contours of her body underneath him. He absorbed this image, making it into a memory, filing it away in his mind just because he was selfish like that and wanted to keep her, somehow. And he liked the way she was looking up at him, all trust and desire and blue eyes.

''Tell me what you want,'' he said. _Tell me who you need me to be. Just don't look too close._


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N This chapter contains a bit of shameless smut. This story is rated M for a reason. Be ye warned. **

* * *

Darcy never gave much thought to it before, but she had a large mirror on the wall across from her bed. It had been there since she moved in, and after awhile she had become so used to her own reflection that she never even noticed the mirror anymore. But now there was someone else in bed with her, someone else's body reflected in the glass and he was _beautiful. _Darcy couldn't help but accidentally glimpse her own image staring back at her and she didn't recognize the person there, because she was beautiful, too, and that reflection showing them, both of them…doing things…and him…and the look on her own face and….

At first, Loki hadn't even noticed the mirror; he was too busy trying to make her scream. He had a wild and all-consuming need to render her senseless, to hear her yell his name, even if she didn't know who he really was, even if she would hate him if she knew, right then he was still driving her mad with ecstasy and he wanted to hear her _say it, _to _beg him._ But it seemed more like he was begging. She didn't know what was really going on; all she knew was that she was being fucked spectacularly by a man she'd met earlier in the evening. And really, there _were_ worse ways to spend one's time.

The room looked trashed, in shambles. Apparently they'd crashed into quite a few pieces of furniture while trying to find their way to the bed. Most of the sheets and covers had gotten kicked aside and were lying on the floor and things were very strange because now he wasn't sure where he stood in all of this, and he was desperately close to losing control, just _letting_ _go_ because she wasn't what he expected at all…she sat astride him, wrapping her legs around his waist, like she was trying to pull him even more deeply into her, and _this was all wrong this was all wrong._ She lightly bit his neck and dug her heel into his back and moaned and he couldn't help but echo the sound and then he realized that there was a mirror on the wall and the look reflected on his own face as she consumed and enveloped him made him both frightened and furious. He shut his eyes and with a snarl he grabbed her waist and spun them around so that they neither could see who they were anymore and then they crashed against each other wildly, and when she came she screamed his name and dug her fingernails into his skin.

And when he came he felt nothing but that fearful jolt of oblivion, of falling into endless space, and he hated himself but he held on to her like she was an anchor, when really she was the thing pushing him further and further away from shore.

* * *

''How did this happen?'' Darcy said aloud, her voice cracking with utter bewilderment. It was morning, and she felt almost drunk still, though she knew she wasn't. Her body was raw, her skin literally crackling with what seemed like a tangible electricity, a weird tingling sensation enveloping her from the inside out. She put a hand against her mouth and her reflection did the same, in many fragments. The mirror, the one she had never given a second thought to before the previous night, was cracked…no, _shattered_, rather, and jagged shards littered the room like icicles. She couldn't remember it breaking. True, she was quite otherwise occupied for much of the time but Darcy was fairly certain that she would have remembered a large mirror being destroyed only a few feet away from her.

She turned around and looked back at the bed, noticing the still-sleeping form of the man she'd met in the bar the night before. _Loki_. Darcy's skin grew heated as she recalled the events of the previous evening. _What on Earth had happened?_

Darcy slowly and quietly crept over to where he lay, one arm outstretched and thrown over the pillow, his black hair mussed and wild. He didn't look peaceful. His body was asleep, but it seemed like his mind was thrashing crazily in pain while he dreamed. Darcy was torn between crawling back into bed beside him and running out the door of her own apartment. She took another look at the shards of cracked mirror laying all around like deadly sharp confetti scattered on the carpet. Then she stole a glance back to the pale man lying in her bed, his face looking almost tormented in sleep, but still somehow too beautiful; very otherworldly and very strange.

She let him dream. Wandering into the living room, Darcy tried to take her mind off of the confused thoughts and emotions that threatened to swallow her by cleaning. She dusted and organized her bookshelves, then headed into the kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee while she tackled all of the dishes that had been abandoned in her sink for the past several days. Ramen noodle wrappers and empty boxes of Hot Pockets were swept into the garbage can. Darcy did all of this very quickly, like she wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing, as if she were just trying to lose herself in motion and mundane details. Yet, she couldn't force her mind to shut out everything that had happened the night before. Couldn't force herself to ignore the fact that Loki was still in the very next room. And Darcy wasn't sure that she wanted to.

She sighed. Darcy wasn't sure how she should feel. How did women usually feel after nights like this? Probably hungover and full of self-loathing, but she was surprisingly neither. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She felt alive. Her skin was humming; she was charged with electricity. Darcy was surprised that her hair wasn't standing on end.

And the sex. Oh, there was that. She'd had orgasms before, obviously, but never like the ones she'd experienced the night before. He knew instinctively where to touch her, finding sensitive places on her body that she didn't even know existed. It was almost embarrassing how loudly she'd been screaming, the things that had been coming out of her mouth. Sure, she usually liked talking dirty a little bit, it made things exciting, but she'd sounded like quite the porn star, and had probably woken up several of her neighbors. There was something…_different_ about Loki that Darcy couldn't really wrap her mind around. It was as though -and she knew this sounded silly—it was as though he had some kind of strange power or ability that she couldn't really understand. There was something _more_ to him beyond just being a fantastic lay with a sexy voice and a talent for finding her g-spot. Something was crawling just beneath the surface. It made Darcy shiver.

The ringing of her cell phone jolted the young woman out of her daydreaming, and she jumped at the sound. It was Jane calling. Darcy winced, remembering how she had blown off her friend and boss the night before.

''Hello?'' she answered cautiously, bracing herself for a lecture.

''Darcy! Hey, you'll never believe this—are you busy?'' Jane sounded remarkably excited and not the least bit annoyed, as Darcy had expected. ''Um, ah, no—not really at the moment,'' she replied curiously.

''Good, ok,'' Jane rushed on ahead, ''I know that it's the weekend and everything but I started taking a second look at some of the data from last week—you know, that event I'd hoped was an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, similar to the one that—well, to the other one…''

Darcy nodded into the phone, rolling her eyes slightly, ''Yeah, I know the one,'' she replied, ''so you think that the event last week is what…the same thing? A bridge?''

''According to this data, that's a definite possibility, however it seems that whatever caused both events was slightly different. But _not random_.''

A slight headache was beginning behind Darcy's eyes. ''So, you're saying that someone caused this latest event to transport themselves here? We knew that they could do that. So who showed up? And where exactly did they come from this time?''

Jane was silent for a moment, then responded, ''I don't know yet. Like I said, there were some differences between this event and the last but the basic physics is the same. I'll know more once I get this data analyzed. So can you please come help me? Just for a little while? I'll buy you a Starbucks gift card….''

_What the shit was this?_ Darcy thought. Jane bribing her with coffee, begging for her help, not even mentioning the fact that she'd ditched her in bar the night before to have wild, fantastic sex with a random Englishman named after a Norse god…..this was all getting too weird. It was like Bizarro world. Darcy pinched herself hard on the arm, just to make sure that this wasn't all some extremely vivid lucid dream. No such luck.

''Ok,'' she agreed with a sigh. ''Just let me get cleaned up. I'll see you in about an hour.''

Darcy hung up the phone and turned around, then gasped and jumped back when she saw that Loki was awake and standing in the doorway. He was shirtless and his hair was rumpled from sleep and standing up in unruly spikes. ''Good morning,'' he said.

''God, you scared me. Sorry,'' Darcy put a hand over her heart to calm herself.

Loki smiled. ''Didn't mean to frighten you,'' he answered.

Darcy tried to not look at him directly, but she was having a hard time. He looked so overwhelmingly inviting. ''Look, my boss just called. She needs me to come into work for a little while and help her analyze some stuff. So…maybe we can hang out tomorrow? I mean, if you still want to….''

He raised his eyebrows. ''Why wouldn't I still want to?''

Darcy flushed. ''Well, I mean…after everything…I'm not sure how these things work,'' she admitted, brushing her tangled hair behind her shoulders.

''Ah, I see,'' Loki answered, ''you think that I'm just going to walk out of your life now.'' He narrowed his green eyes at her. ''Let me be clear, Miss Lewis, I have every intention of seeing you again, and I hope very much that we can repeat the events of last night. Does that sound alright to you?''

The woman nodded. ''Sounds good,'' she whispered. It sounded better than good. The tingling in her body briefly amplified until it felt like there were delicious little lightning bolts striking along her skin; she was cloaked in the bright dizziness of arousal and for a moment wanted nothing more than to drag him back into the bedroom and repeat those events multiple times right then.

''So, I'll leave you to get ready and go help your boss, but maybe later tonight we can meet up afterward?'' Loki moved closer to her, so that their bodies were barely touching. Her breathing hitched and he could tell that she wanted him badly, yet again, and that she would say yes and invite him back, in every way possible.

''I, um…I'd like that. How about we meet back here, maybe around 9?'' _This is crazy_, Darcy thought to herself. _What is happening here, what am I doing?_

Loki nodded. ''That would be perfect. Just let me get dressed and then I'll be out of your way.'' He smiled at her, raising his hand and trailing one of his long, elegant fingers down her cheek, over her lips, tracing all the contours of her face before turning away and heading back into the bedroom.

''By the way,'' he called over his shoulder, ''Did you know that your mirror is broken? Don't worry, just leave it, I'll help you clean up later.''

* * *

Loki threw on his rumpled clothes that had been scattered all around Darcy's bedroom and then left, giving her some much-needed space. He stepped carefully around the shards of broken mirror that lay embedded in the carpet. He would definitely have to help her with that. After all, it was primarily his fault that it had shattered in the first place. It was _mostly_ unintentional, just a telekinetic bi-product of all of the energy that had been crashing around the room the night before. Yet, Loki was happy to see it destroyed. He had been rather disturbed and infuriated by the look of his own reflection as he…what would you call that, what they had done? Making love? Absolutely _not_. Fucking? No, that wasn't right, either. There wasn't a word for it, that was true, but Loki only knew that he wanted to do it again as soon as possible, and so did she.

This was all working very well. Now, Darcy was on her way to see Jane, who from the sounds of that conversation he had overheard had come across something interesting in her research. And interesting usually boded well for him. Yes, Darcy Lewis had been a good investment of his time and energy. It seemed that she had a habit leading him right to all of the answers he sought.

Before he left, Loki bent down and picked up one of the jagged slivers of mirror that lay crookedly on the floor by the bed. He put it in his pocket, wanting to have it but not really certain why.

He had some time to kill before he followed her to work, and so he walked aimlessly. Loki didn't understand it, but he felt the need to keep moving, perhaps to distract himself from all of the chaos that was threatening to break loose inside his mind. He reminded himself that he should not feel this way, there was no reason to. But there was that same, panicky terror clawing its way over him like gnarled fingers, filling him with utter confusion. He just wanted to be close to her again, and this made objectivity much more difficult.

She had gotten to him, somehow. The way she'd kissed him, climbed on top of him, done wicked things with her mouth that practically made his eyes cross. Her hair, her lips, her eyes. But the man she responded to, the man she wanted to devour, wasn't really him. It was a shadow, a lie shrouded in the vague and blurry outlines of truth. For one second the night before, as he was inside her and she gasped and kissed him, he had looked into her eyes and he was _terrified_ because it seemed as though he was disappearing. He couldn't recall why he was there, or where he had come from, or even his own name. Thoughts of revenge vanished—just for an instant, but an instant too long. He forgot his anger towards Thor and his father. He forgot who he was, and became whoever she needed him to be. But then back to reality. He had to be able to pretend, had to be close to Darcy allowing her to get the better of him; he needed to maintain the upper hand as well as his mental equilibrium. He was the god of Lies, wasn't he? This should be _easy._

He drew in a deep breath and forced himself to focus. He could have fun with the girl as long as he didn't lose his footing, Loki realized. Pleasure was pleasure, and he'd been deprived of it for some time. What he was feeling was simply the natural high that accompanied physical intimacy. Nothing more than that. He kept whispering this to himself like a mantra. Reaching into his pocket, he gripped the shard of broken mirror that he had taken from Darcy's room, digging the edge deeply into his skin, the pain grounding him, reminding him of who and what he was. _Cold. Monster. Nothing more than that._

* * *

Darcy was having a difficult time concentrating. The energy that seemed to be hovering around her skin like an aura since that morning had not disappeared. Jane was now wildly intrigued by some inconsistencies in the data that she'd collected the week before; apparently now she was sure that she'd simply overlooked something, that an Einstein-Rosen bridge had occurred, and someone or something had traveled over in the event, but that seemed to be where it all got foggy. Jane was babbling on about abstract, theoretical concepts that turned Darcy's brain to spaghetti. She nodded along, reminding herself that it wasn't her job to understand all of the science, she was essentially Jane's secretary. She just had to be able to file and take notes and catalog information. The downside to this was that Darcy could afford to let her mind wander while she worked and she did just that. And her mind kept drifting back to one person, and then would drift further into daydreams that quickly became fantasies, and soon she was growing more heated by the minute as she allowed herself to relive her time with Loki the night before and to entertain absolutely wicked thoughts about what they might do tonight.

''…This bridge seemed more unstable, more chaotic. I don't think that this was necessarily a planned visit, more like a last resort. It was the closest possible location to latch on to,'' Jane was saying, frowning. Darcy jolted back into awareness, blinking, trying to make it seem like she'd been paying attention the entire time.

''Well did anyone actually _show up_?'' asked Darcy. ''I thought that you were monitoring these things, wouldn't you have noticed if another person fell out of the sky?''

''I wasn't at the location of this particular event while it happened, Darce. My equipment was, and a lot of the visual that was captured is completely distorted. There was a tremendous amount of energy consistent with something being transported through the wormhole but there doesn't seem to be any physical evidence.'' Jane shook her head. ''My guess is that given the unstable nature of the event, even if something or someone did manage to travel through, they probably didn't survive. But don't quote me on that, we still have a lot of work to do.''

Darcy watched Jane pace the floor nervously, thinking aloud, brushing her hair behind her ears, adjusting and readjusting the too-large gray sweater that hung on her thin shoulders. She was going a mile a minute, fueled both by caffeine and the thought that she was somehow getting closer to having Thor back.

''You don't think it was him, do you?'' Darcy asked aloud.

Jane paused mid-pace and looked at her assistant; the startled expression that crossed her face morphed briefly into a kind of pained sadness, and Darcy felt instantly regretful that she had said anything.

''I…well,'' the scientist turned away momentarily, her hair falling over her face and obscuring it. ''No,'' she whispered. ''I don't think it was him.'' Jane pushed her hair back and straightened up, a look of resolve about her. ''But that doesn't mean that this isn't important. Each time that one of these events occurs I have a rare opportunity to understand a little bit more. And that gives me hope. I need to figure out the science behind how these bridges work, and I need to figure out what's on the other side and how to get from point a to point b. That, more than anything else, is my goal at the moment.''

Then she sighed and allowed herself to rest, sinking almost wearily down into a chair.

''I swear, I wish I wanted to know things as much as you do.'' Darcy couldn't believe that she'd admitted that. Jane raised her head, looking surprised. ''But you _do_ want to know things, Darcy. Why else would you be helping me with all this craziness? Admit it, you're just as curious about the mysteries of the universe as I am.''

Darcy shook her head. ''Yes and no. I mean,'' she struggled for the right words, ''Sure, I think that it's totally cool that I can be a part of these amazing discoveries. Anyone with a brain would agree that's pretty boss. So I get excited about it, but…it's like this stuff consumes you. You're so passionate about it all. I don't think I have ever cared about anything as much as you care about your research, as much as you care about figuring out how everything works. At heart, I think I might really just be one of those people who shrugs and says go figure and doesn't really need to know _how_ or _why_.''

Jane smiled a little. ''I honestly don't think that's you at all. And someday I know that you'll agree.''


	5. Chapter 5

**Finally managed to update! Sorry, been kinda busy lately. Thank you to all the wonderful people currently following this story, and to the three people who reviewed. =) I love you guys! Here you go:**

* * *

Loki wasn't entirely sure if he felt more or less powerful when he was invisible. Probably more, but there was also a frightening element to it, to cease existing in solid form. Even if it was a trick, and gave him an admitted advantage, it was still a slightly uncomfortable one. But he did it very well, and it was necessary under these circumstances and so Loki witnessed the entire exchange between his new friend Darcy and the scientist, Jane. He noted that Darcy seemed much more serious and introspective while she worked, almost bordering at times on melancholy. The blue in her eyes seemed to darken to nearly indigo, and her brow furrowed in concentration. It wasn't a bad look at all, just different.

''So, you have any plans for tonight?'' Jane was asking Darcy as she gathered various papers into a neat pile. Darcy blinked, as if contemplating what answer she should give. But her heart sped up a bit, and he saw right into that strange little mind of hers and _yes, she had plans._ Loki smiled. He moved even closer to her, wondering if she could feel him. He reached out and very softly ran a finger along the side of her face, thrilled once again at how soft and inviting her skin was. Sure enough, she shuddered lightly at the contact.

''I, uh…'' Darcy stammered a little bit, and then Jane continued, ''And hey, whatever happened with that guy? You texted me last night and said that you met someone.'' She smiled as she continued to gather up the various charts and graphs that littered the office like confetti. ''So? Do you think that you'll hang out again?''

Darcy's heart began to beat louder and more frantically. Loki could practically hear the blood rushing through her veins like a river. He decided to play with her just a little bit more, to take advantage of this strong connection that they seemed to share. He leaned his head down by her neck, breathing in the scent of her, allowing himself that moment of indulgence. She smelled like lilacs. He gently pressed his lips against her neck, and she jumped ever so slightly, surprised, then relaxed, seemingly allowing herself to enjoy the sensations rather than trying to fight them or discover the source. _That's it,_ he whispered into her mind. _You like this, you like the way I make you feel_. He continued to press soft kisses along her throat, then nipped at her lightly. He felt her suck in a breath. Realizing that Jane had asked her a question, Darcy cleared her throat and attempted a response. ''Yeah, I think…definitely. He was…pretty amazing.''

Jane paused, her hands full of star maps. She looked at Darcy curiously, raising an eyebrow. ''That's it? Just 'pretty amazing'? Darcy, I've known you for awhile now, and anytime you've met a cute guy, you can't stop giving me details, more details than I want. I'm usually on the verge of stapling your mouth shut after less than half an hour. Come to think of it, you really aren't acting like yourself today. You've been so quiet….you haven't even been checking Tumblr every three seconds. Are you alright?''

Loki flicked his tongue against Darcy's earlobe. She squirmed in her chair and let out a weird little squeak; clearly he'd aroused her, and this made the god smile.

Darcy jumped up from her seat, flustered, her face red. ''I'm fine,'' she blurted insistently, ''I'm just crashing. I need caffeine. Where's that Starbucks gift card you promised me?''

Jane sighed, shaking her head. ''Well, that's more like it.'' She reached into the messenger bag propped on a chair, pulled out a small plastic card and handed it to Darcy, who began to frantically gather her things, saying ''Thanks! I gotta run, though, 'cause I have to get ready….I do have plans tonight.'' Jane opened her mouth to say something, but Darcy rushed ahead, ''I promise to be careful and I'll keep you posted about everything. See you Monday!'' She practically ran out the front door, and Loki had to bite back a laugh at her spastic, hurried movements.

He was suddenly very aware that he had been smiling quite a lot lately and spending less and less time brooding in the misery that he expected to be drenched in. The feeling that had so often haunted him, the chip on his shoulder, the voice in his head telling him that nobody would ever listen to him unless they were forced, it was all still there but was dulling, beginning to fade. Loki looked around at Jane's makeshift lab/office, a messy little place to be sure, but Darcy had been right about one thing, the scientist truly did care immensely about the work that she did, and she had sacrificed pretty much everything to see it completed. That was something like love, he supposed, or at least an incredible devotion. The sun was beginning to fade outside the window, everything was now bathed in that unearthly combination of golden light and shadow.

Even Jane, standing alone in the center of the room, a stack of paper still clutched in her thin hand, looked softer. But also very alone, with her papers and charts and her shadow along the floor. He almost felt sorry for her, and this confused him. The anger and bitterness inside him that he'd become so familiar with and almost come to trust was weakening, somehow, and this was very frightening. Because without it, he wasn't very strong. Wasn't very determined. Wasn't really much of anything except an abandoned child left out in the snow.

He blinked, remembering that he needed to be leaving, that he would be seeing Darcy again in a few hours. An unexpected warmth ran through him at the thought. And he still needed to fix that mirror.

* * *

Darcy had just enough time to stop and grab a caramel macchiato on the way home and chat for a few moments with her favorite barista, Sarah. Sipping on her drink as she walked, and grateful for the sweet influx of caffeine into her blood stream, Darcy tried to make sense of what had happened in the lab. Clearly, her 'ghost' was back, but this time he wasn't just watching her, undressing her with his eyes or whatever, this had been very real physical contact, not just phantom tingles and weird vibes. And it had actually been rather enjoyable, no sense kidding herself about that, Darcy figured. She took another sip of her drink and tried not to think about it too hard. After all, she would be seeing Loki again that evening, and she didn't want any distractions in her head that might lead to her saying stupid things, the way she had the night before. Although, Loki hadn't seemed to mind, rather, he'd apparently thought she was funny. Her stomach did little flip flops at the memory of the previous evening. Good God, she wouldn't mind repeating any of _that_ at all.

Darcy arrived at her apartment and ditched her purse on a chair. She took off her shoes and, true to habit, plugged her iPod into the stereo. Wandering into the bedroom, she tried to decide what to wear. As she opened her closet to sort through various options, Darcy whirled around, doing a double take as she realized that there was no longer a mess of shattered mirror everywhere. Everything was perfectly clean and the wall was blank. For the briefest instant, Darcy wondered if the mirror had ever really been there at all of if that had all been part of some very incredible dream. Well, Loki had told her before she left that he would help her clean up, hadn't he? Still, it had been an awfully big mess… Darcy shrugged, seeing no sense in standing in the middle of her bedroom for hours and trying to figure it all out. There were more important priorities at the moment, like choosing an outfit.

She finally settled on her go-to little black dress, then raided her jewelry box and stumbled upon her old silver bracelet with the emeralds set into it, and the matching necklace, pieces that she'd received as a high school graduation present. She hadn't worn them in years, but for whatever reason this night they seemed to catch her eye, to sparkle a little more than they had before. And so she slipped them on after she'd slid into her dress and fixed her hair and makeup. The resulting effect was a nice one, and Darcy figured that she looked at least striking, if not perfect.

Her nerves were bothering her a bit, butterflies in her stomach doing crazy dives and tumbles. Her skin began to heat again as she remembered Loki's eyes and his long fingers and the sharp planes of his face. Darcy couldn't remember another time when she'd let a man get under her skin after such a short span of time. A knock on the front door interrupted her thoughts, and Darcy jumped a little, startled at the sound. She flew out of the bedroom and over to the door, stumbling a little as she went, wincing inwardly at her own clumsiness. Trying to will her furiously pounding heart to calm, she pulled open the door and there he stood, her mysterious, oddly-named conquest. He looked wonderful, all tall and lean muscle, dressed in black, which suited him, she felt. His eyes were still that strange, shimmering mix of green and blue. He was still unbelievable. She blinked. He grinned.

''Hello, Darcy,'' he said.

* * *

They went out to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant that Darcy suggested. She loved Italian food, the only trouble was that she wasn't the most graceful at dining, even though she tried. No matter what she did, she always wound up somehow covered in sauce or crumbs at the end of the meal, which infuriated her to no end. She'd never learned that cool trick where you twirled spaghetti around and around your fork, rather, she always cut the noodles up into small, bite size portions to avoid a mess. But so far, so good. She was eating very slowly, so there had been no unfortunate accidents thus far. She set down her fork and took a long sip of red wine. Loki was staring at her curiously from across the table with those too-intense sparkling eyes. Darcy swallowed and set down her wine glass.

''So, um, last night was…fun,'' she began. He raised an eyebrow and nodded in agreement. ''Yes, it certainly was,'' he replied, a half smile tugging up one corner of his mouth.

''But I still don't know very much about you at all,'' Darcy added, blushing a little in spite of herself. ''We sort of…jumped into things rather quickly. And I get it, it happens. But…well, now that we're actually having a—''she gestured with her hands, not quite sure the correct word to use. Date? Meeting? She just let it go, and started again. ''So, what's your story?''

Loki blinked. ''My story?''

Darcy nodded. ''Yeah. Where are you from, what do you do for a living, what brings you here, favorite color…you know, the whole bit.'' She folded her hands and paused, waiting for a reply.

''I arrived here mostly by accident,'' Loki began, figuring that he could easily craft a story as he went along, ''It wasn't a planned trip, but I decided to make the best of it. I needed to start over, let's say. Figure some things out. And I'd heard…good things about this area from my brother.'' Loki was quiet for a moment after this. He wasn't sure why he'd said that.

''So you have a brother?'' Darcy prompted, gesturing for him to continue.

''Yes. Our father…was the CEO of a very large corporation. He was getting older and decided to retire, so he appointed my brother to take his place.'' This was getting a little too close to the true for his liking but she just looked so eager to hear everything, and so he continued,

''However, my brother made some reckless business decisions and our father was furious. He disinherited him and threw him out. I supposed I would be next in line, however it was soon revealed to me that I wasn't really my father's son. I was adopted, and there were certain things about my…biological parents that had been kept from me. I inherited certain traits that…well, never mind.'' He winced a little, wondering why he was rambling on so.

''But needless to say, I wasn't the most ideal choice to take over the company. And the board of directors would do anything to prevent it from happening.''

He paused in the story to take a drink of wine and to gage her reaction. Darcy was looking at him with rapt attention and some other, indefinable emotion on her face. ''That's crazy,'' she breathed. ''So what happened then? What did your father decide to do?''

''He didn't have time to decide anything. He grew very ill soon after this and fell into a coma. And so I was appointed interim CEO, temporarily of course, but the board was furious. They wanted me to use my new status to bring my brother back, restore his inheritance, and let him take my place. It was infuriating. I…genuinely cared about the company. And I had some very good ideas about new directions we could go, new ventures. And my brother…he was not the sort of person who had the insight to be able to make the necessary decisions to make the company prosper. He would have run us into the ground.'' Loki realized that he was clutching his wine glass so tightly in anger that he was amazed it hadn't shattered yet. He sighed inwardly, looking up into Darcy's blue and eager eyes. She was nodding, wanting him to continue. _Why not?_ He thought, and decided to finish this whole ugly tale.

''So one day, my brother and I had a confrontation. I sought him out and we fought. He didn't agree with one of the deals I was planning, which was absolutely ridiculous, because it had originally been _his_ idea. I simply improved upon it a bit. Apparently he'd met some woman during his time away, and she managed to open his eyes or change his mind or something like that. I don't really know. After our fight, I learned that my father had woken up. My brother was back and clearly it was obvious what was going to happen. The prodigal son would return and I would be left with nothing once again. So I jumped off a bridge.'' He tossed that last part out there rather casually and abruptly, as if it didn't matter, but Darcy dropped her fork and gasped a little. The utensil hit the edge of her plate with a loud clatter, and other diners in the restaurant turned around for a moment, but she didn't seem to care.

''What do you mean, you _jumped off a bridge_? You mean you tried to _kill_ yourself?'' Darcy seemed deeply troubled, and if Loki wasn't mistaken, she almost looked as though she might cry. He didn't know how to feel about that.

''Yes. I survived, obviously,'' he rolled his eyes a little. ''I needed to spend some time recovering, though. I severed all ties with my family and came here. I arrived not even two weeks ago.''

Darcy was completely silent for a few moments. She finished the rest of her wine, then reached for the bottle and poured herself another large glass, which she began to drink down very quickly.

''I think you're supposed to sip that, if I'm not mistaken. It tastes better that way. You're missing all the nuances of flavor.'' Loki was aware that he was being unnecessarily critical, but he didn't care. She was distressing him. He didn't like the fact that she was upset, even if it was his fault.

''You know what else makes you miss _nuances of flavor_?'' Darcy snapped at him, eyes blazing, shining with the beginnings of tears. ''Jumping off of a bridge! All you get then is nuances of _dead._ Why would you try to do that? Did you really think you were that _worthless_?'' She was crying now, though she tried to hide it. ''I'll be right back,'' she mumbled, then got up from the table and headed off in the direction of the ladies room.

Loki sighed bitterly, realizing that he'd been so much more open than he wanted to be, angry with himself for telling her….well, for telling her the entire story. Or, the Midgardian version of it. This character that he'd created for himself was coming despairingly close to not being a character at all, and just being _him._ He wondered briefly how Darcy would react to that. She'd probably either cry or drag him off to bed. The girl was turning out to be very unpredictable.

At that moment, Darcy returned. Her eyes were slightly puffy, but she looked otherwise collected. Sinking into her chair, she fixed him with an intense look, but said ''I'm sorry I snapped at you, Loki. You just…shocked me a little, that's all. I shouldn't have reacted so emotionally, I guess, it's just that my best friend committed suicide in our junior year of high school. Nobody even knew that she was depressed. And it killed me a little, you know? We were completely inseparable, had been since the second grade. We were both only children, but we thought of ourselves as sisters. If anybody should have been able to save her, it was me. But I had no idea. I couldn't see. I guess what I'm trying to say is that nobody is worthless. You don't need to do something so drastic and irreversible just because you feel like you're unloved or misunderstood. And for the record, I think that I like you quite a bit.''

She paused, then smiled crookedly at him. ''And I'm glad that you found your way here.'' She picked up her wine glass and held it up. He did the same, and glass clinked amiably.

''This world is a good place to be, I can prove it to you,'' she added. ''Serious conversation is over for tonight! I'm here, you're here, we're alive.'' The wine seemed to be hitting her, now, and she raised an eyebrow at him seductively before asking, ''Hey, by the way, what's your favorite color?''

* * *

_I'm losing my mind. I'm lost here._ Loki realized this as Darcy lay with her head in his lap, smiling up at him. Time moved so strangely in this realm. He felt trapped in amber. Was this how Thor had felt? Was this why he changed his mind so abruptly? If this were true, then Loki supposed he was doomed. The icy voice inside of his mind was fading away, he couldn't hear it anymore.

That jagged shard of mirror was still in his pocket, and he didn't know why. Just like he didn't know why right at that moment they were sprawled on the small and worn sofa in Darcy's living room, listening to music. She was all soft and disjointed, too much wine had stained her full lips and when she smiled, he saw that her teeth were also tinged with an inky red hue. But it made her seem sweet and delicious, somehow.

They'd brought back another bottle from the restaurant and she'd turned on the little device she was so fond of. Music flooded the room, like cool shadows.

''I didn't wear those shoes you don't like,'' Darcy said quietly, a smile lifting the red-stained corners of her mouth. She pointed her now-bare feet and wiggled her toes to emphasize the point.

''Hmmm,'' he responded, playing with a strand of her hair. He looked down at her, and suddenly she shuddered a little, as if a small electric shock had worked its way through her body.

''What's the matter?'' he asked.

''Nothing,'' Darcy said, trying to smile. She paused before continuing. ''It's just that when you looked at me…I felt…well, you reminded me of something.'' She shrugged, and he felt the motion all through his body.

''What's that?'' he pressed.

''I have a ghost, I think,'' Darcy's voice was an airy half-whisper. She giggled a little. ''He showed up the other day, and he watches me. Sometimes he even touches me.'' She sighed. ''But I don't mind. I don't think he wants to hurt me. I think he likes me.''

She was growing sleepy, her eyelashes fluttering. ''I just wish I knew what he wanted, really. And you remind me of him, the way you looked at me just then…it was the same feeling, those weird little electric shocks all over.''

''I'm not a ghost,'' he told her quietly, stroking her hair.

''Then what are you?'' she asked, laughing lightly. She reached up her hand and traced her fingers over the planes of his face.

''I'm a god.''


	6. Chapter 6

''_**Some one came knocking  
At my wee, small door;  
Someone came knocking;  
I'm sure-sure-sure;  
I listened, I opened,  
I looked to left and right,  
But nought there was a stirring  
In the still dark night;  
Only the busy beetle  
Tap-tapping in the wall,  
Only from the forest  
The screech-owl's call,  
Only the cricket whistling  
While the dewdrops fall,  
So I know not who came knocking,  
At all, at all, at all''**_

_**-Walter de la Mare**_

* * *

''_I'm not a ghost,'' he told her quietly, stroking her hair._

''_Then what are you?'' she asked, laughing lightly. She reached up her hand and traced her fingers over the planes of his face._

''_I'm a god.'' _

Darcy sat up, struggling to straighten her now-rumpled black dress. ''A_ god_?'' she asked, giggling. ''In_ bed_, maybe.''

Her eyes darkened with desire and she moved to crawl back into Loki's lap but suddenly he wasn't there. He had just…vanished.

_What the hell?_ Suddenly, she felt something, a hand brushing over her skin, trailing down her neck, then the distinctive press of familiar lips….but nothing, nobody there. Darcy shrieked and jumped up, whirling around. And there stood Loki, smiling at her devilishly. Her poor heart was pounding like a jackhammer. ''Don't scare me like that! How….how did you?'' she trailed off, staring around the room, looking disoriented.

''I must be way drunker than I thought,'' whispered Darcy. She felt as though her mind had been whirred in a centrifuge. ''Weren't you just….I thought I felt….''

Loki still grinned and moved closer to her. Darcy couldn't help it; she reflexively took a step back, still very confused. The grin faded off his face, like drops of rainwater sliding along a windowpane. ''You're frightened,'' he said. Some shadowy, pained look briefly crawled over his features, and made his eyes very uncomfortable to look into.

''What? No, not frightened…I'm just not really sure what's going on. Are you trying to mess with me because I'm drunk? I'm not sure if it's funny, and you've got a really weird, really serious look on your face.'' Darcy ran her hands through her wild hair and drew in a deep breath to steady herself.

Loki stared into her eyes, and she felt those unmistakable tingles once again ghosting all over her body, now more than ever so very, very familiar.

''It's _you_,'' she breathed dizzily. ''It's been _you _the whole time. How are you doing that?''

He didn't answer her, just continued to stare, as if trying to push flashes of understanding into her mind through the dizzying blue green swirls of his eyes.

Darcy got a sinking feeling deep in the pit of her stomach as everything began to come together. ''The…the bridge that you jumped off of….it wasn't like an actual bridge, was it?'' she whispered this, blood pounding in her ears, briefly afraid that she might just pass out. ''It was one of those Einstein-whoever bridges, like the one that Thor….'' Darcy trailed off; her hand flew to her mouth as she remembered Erik and Jane talking about the myths, remembered seeing drawings in that children's book…._Loki._ No, it couldn't be.

'_Was someone else coming?_'

Giant metal robots and fire out of the sky. The pure blinding terror and disbelief that had clawed at her mind in those moments, the look of horror and panic on Jane's face. Thor, lying bloody on the ground.

''_So one day, we had a confrontation. I sought him out and we fought. He didn't agree with one of the deals I was planning, which was absolutely ridiculous, because it had originally been his idea. I simply improved upon it a bit. Apparently he'd met some woman during his time away, and she managed to open his eyes or change his mind or something like that. I don't really know.''_ Loki's words from earlier that evening echoed in her mind, taking on a whole new, much darker context.

''You're…from the other world. Like Thor. You're his brother.'' It wasn't even a question. She knew.

''You tried to kill all of us, once,'' Darcy added this, trying to choke back the terror that was working its way along her spine. Loki's physical appearance hadn't really changed, except that there was a look in his eyes that was somewhere between menacing and mournful. He was still tall and pale and beautiful, and against her will her skin still flushed and her stomach did little flips when she remembered the way it felt when he touched her.

Loki opened his mouth to say something, but Darcy was interrupted by the sudden, powerful need to vomit. Bolting away from him she ran into the bathroom and collapsed in a crumpled heap on the tile, hugging the toilet, retching. She should have known better than to drink so much red wine. Darcy twitched violently as she suddenly felt familiar long fingers on her neck, holding back her hair. The gesture was made with such tenderness and concern that it made her want to throw up again.

She also wanted to kick him, scream, run, grab her taser, anything…but she couldn't. Her head was spinning too much for all of that; she'd been rendered useless by a combination of shock and alcohol. ''You're going to kill me, aren't you?'' she whispered. ''Why did you wait so long? Why did you have to drag it out? That was a pretty dick move.''

Her head lolled and Darcy was then aware that she was being moved off of the bathroom floor, Loki had picked her up and she was being carried somewhere. ''You jerk,'' she whispered. Then she was laid down onto something soft that felt remarkably like her bed, and everything spun away and faded completely to black.

* * *

When Darcy awoke the first thing that she heard was music. ''Science Fiction Double Feature,'' from _The Rocky Horror Picture Show._ She opened her heavy eyes and blinked wildly. It was morning, and it was raining. Again. Her head felt like a stone. Gingerly, she stepped out of bed. Glancing down at herself, she realized that she was wearing a silky, flimsy emerald-green nightgown. She owned nothing of the sort. Darcy's mind reeled in panic as she recalled the events of the previous evening, praying that they were a dream. She tentatively wandered into the living room.

Loki was sitting on the couch, holding her iPod, studying it as though he were fascinated. He looked up as he heard her approach. At first he didn't say a word, just studied her, his gaze roving briefly over her body before he asked, ''How are you feeling?''

Darcy let out a sound halfway between a choked scream and a giggle. Then she composed herself, drew in a breath, and asked, ''What am I wearing?''

A hesitant smile briefly shifted Loki's features before he replied, ''I found that it would be…beneficial to you to…dispose of the dress that you were wearing earlier last night. You were quite ill, and I'm afraid it was ruined. I thought that you might be more comfortable in something else. ''

''Something else, huh? You're _something else_, I'll tell you what. Tell me what's going on, and make it good. I know you've just been using me, I'm not stupid. I'd just like to know why.'' Darcy's voice trembled a little at the end, and she forced herself to become steel, to glare into Loki's eyes with ice in her heart.

''Green,'' he said, after a moment. He tapped the screen of her iPod and the song changed.

''Stop messing with my iPod! What the hell does that mean—_green_?''

''I haven't hurt your device, I promise. In fact, I enchanted it to run more efficiently. You won't ever need to revive the battery again. Green is my favorite color. Last night, at dinner, before you insisted that we order another bottle of wine and come back here, I believe that you asked me what my favorite color was. It's green. I think that you look quite lovely in the color.''

Heat pooled low in Darcy's stomach despite the fury and hurt that was building behind her eyes.

''Don't you do that, damn you. Don't pretend that you give a shit about the way I look, or what I do, or how my shoes fit, or my 'lively mind.' It was all fake, wasn't it? And it's still fake, because now I know that you're the fucking god of _Lies_. What really burns me up is that I fell for it. And I fell hard. How could I not? You come on all strong with the intense vibes and the sexy voice—not to mention that you've also been my secret, gropey invisible stalker! And you…you made me feel things…incredible things. And I'm still feeling them right now, which makes this even harder. And the worst part is_, I was on your side_. I felt sorry for you. I wanted to cry last night at dinner when you told me about not feeling wanted, not belonging. I wanted to take you home and love you up and make sure you knew that yeah, you're actually pretty great. But really Loki, I don't think you're all that great right now.'' Darcy was trembling and dizzy after she'd finished saying this. Her palms had little half-moon marks from where she'd dug her nails in.

''I never lied to you,'' he began, in a low voice, his eyes terrible.

''I told you my name. I told you my story. I never hurt you. Everything I said was true, even when I didn't want it to be, and whenever I touched you, I meant it.'' Loki was standing now, and Darcy took a step back, realizing now more than ever how tall he really was, how intense he could make himself appear.

''I came here, and there were…horrible things inside my mind. I didn't really have anyone's best intentions at heart, that part is true. All I heard was the voice that told me I was a monster because that's what I knew to be true.''

He seemed to shift before her then, his skin changing hue, lightly at first and then darkening into a deep, cold shade of blue. His eyes changed, becoming red and glowing. And then, abruptly, he was his familiar self again.

''Those are your…uh, _inherited traits_, I guess,'' Darcy said wearily. She was now acutely aware of how hungover and mentally exhausted she really was, wishing fervently that she could crawl back into bed and then wake up in another world where this was all a dream, where nobody fell out of the sky, where there were no gods.

''I had to wear a back brace when I was in the seventh grade,'' she offered, then shrugged, because there was no other reaction that made sense at the moment.

They stood there like that for a minute, facing each other.

''The first day I saw you, it was raining. You were carrying a bag full of books and you were wearing red shoes, and they were ridiculous looking but you seemed so sad about ruining them. You want to love something as much as Jane loves science. Your mouth looks beautiful when you drink too much wine.''

Loki said this all to her and Darcy felt her knees turn to water. It wasn't fair. Nobody should be able to sound like that and say those things and have eyes like that. Darcy supposed that there was a reason gods were gods, after all.

''I still don't trust you,'' she said.

''But you want me around. Even when you can't see me, you want me.''

''Yes! Yes, alright, you bastard, I want you. '' Darcy admitted furiously, stomping her bare foot on the floor for emphasis. ''I'm going crazy for you. You're a murderous, crazy deity from a different dimension and all I can think about is that night….and…I felt like my body was melting, like I was a fucking supernova. And part of me is so angry at you, part of me wants to tase you until you're _dead_…but…'' Darcy was aware that she might begin to cry soon, and she couldn't let him see that, so she turned to move away.

Then she felt arms around her, strong, lean, familiar arms. And then lips and hands. But he wasn't a ghost this time, he was solid and real. Loki reached over and dragged her close against him, and Darcy allowed herself once again to be pulled under. His mouth hungrily found hers, and then his fingers dexterously removed the foreign, green garment from her body, inch by inch. Something inside of him so desperately needed to be loved, and maybe she was bad or wrong for having quite so much sympathy for the devil, so to speak, but she didn't care.

* * *

''Why me?'' she whispered softly, afterward, when he was laying in her arms, her body deeply sated and her head humming like a motor with a thousand troubled, crazy thoughts.

''You make me forget,'' he replied.


	7. Chapter 7

**It's finally an update! Yay! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed and encouraged me to write more. Life's been crazy lately but it's finally getting back to normal and I should be back to updating regularly. Thanks for sticking with me, you guys! =)**

* * *

Jane Foster poured her third cup of coffee for the morning and surveyed her office, frowning as she noted Darcy's empty chair.

''Erik?''

Erik Selvig glanced up from his laptop. ''Yes, Jane?''

''Have you noticed that Darcy's been acting a little..._off_, lately?''

Erik rolled his eyes. ''You'd know better than me. She's alwaysbeen a little bit ''off'' in my opinion, but I haven't seen her much recently.''

''But that's just it, Erik,'' Jane began to pace. It seemed to help the caffeine circulate through her blood. ''Darcy keeps pulling this disappearing act. First, there was the other night at the bar where she met this guy who she's apparently very secretive about, and then yesterday she was acting pretty distracted then left quickly. And I called her twice this morning but just got her voicemail.''

Erik sighed. ''It's _Sunday_, Jane. Darcy's probably still sleeping. She's a young woman who likes to have fun. She's allowed to meet people and isn't required to tell you every detail immediately.'' His blue eyes softened. ''Just because this is our life,'' the older scientist waved a hand around to emphasize the charts, computers, and other various equipment, ''doesn't mean that it automatically has to be Darcy's, too.''

Jane sighed and stared down into her coffee cup. ''You're right, Erik,'' she admitted slowly after a few moments of considering his words, ''I guess I'm just a worrier.'' A soft smile crept across Jane's face as she added, ''I still really wish Darcy was here though. She makes much better coffee than you do.''

Erik was just about to reply when there came a very insistent knock at the door. Jane set down her mug and hurried over to answer it, immediately wishing that she hadn't once she saw just who had been knocking.

''Oh, God, not _you_ again!'' She blocked the doorway with her small body, stretching out her arms protectively across the entrance to her office. ''What do you want now?''

The man in the suit raised his eyebrows, his general expression barely changing at all. ''It's nice to see you again too, Dr. Foster.''

''Erik!'' Jane yelled. The older man was at her side in a moment. ''Jane, what-'' he began, then stopped when he saw their visitor.

''What are you doing here, Agent Coulson?'' Dr. Selvig asked warily.

Coulson's face never changed, except for a slight twitch around his mouth that could either be interpreted as the beginning of a smile, or a grimace.

''Thank you both so much for the warm welcome,'' he said blandly. ''I'm here, as you both know, on behalf of SHIELD. I have a small matter that I would like to discuss with you, a matter with which I may require your assistance. May I come in?''

Jane, still blocking the doorway, hesitantly lowered her arms. ''You promise you won't take anything?''

Coulson nodded. ''For now.''

Jane exchanged a quick look with Erik, who nodded. She grudgingly moved aside and let the SHEILD agent in.

* * *

Darcy needed a shower and a cup of coffee. No, scratch that, she needed a pot of coffee. And possible a very good psychiatrist because she was certain that she was going a little crazy. She imagined how the initial conversation with a shrink might go. _Well, Doctor, I'm feeling a little conflicted. I just recently learned that I've been sleeping with a Norse god who sometimes turns blue. Oh, the sex is fantastic. So why the conflict, you ask? Well, because he might be a tad unstable. He sort of tried to destroy an entire town. He's got some family issues. But mental instability and possible homicidal tendencies aside, he's really kind of awesome._ That would go over so very well. Not.

The god in question was now sitting on the floor in Darcy's living room, going through all the books on her ''special'' shelf, where she kept all her favorite titles. He seemed rather engrossed in what he was doing. She watched closely as Loki picked up a copy of ''The Catcher In the Rye'', flipped through it, then closed the book with a sneer, mumbling something about ''whiny Midgardian adolescents.'' Darcy stifled a giggle and continued to watch him. Noting what was on the shelf, she assumed that next he would pick something like Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' or Machiavelli's ''The Prince.'' Instead, Loki surprised her as he pulled out a thin, flat children's picture book.

It was ''Where the Wild Things Are,'' one of the first printed editions, and Darcy's very favorite childhood story. He opened it and began to read. She observed him quietly for what seemed like hours, watching the changing expressions play across his face, his long fingers turning the pages. There was something so utterly sad and childlike about his demeanor, suddenly. He didn't look frightening, or imposing, or powerful. He looked like a lonely little boy sitting on the floor, reading a story. It made something inside Darcy's chest clench a little bit.

Loki closed the book, a puzzled look on his face.''What's up?'' Darcy asked him finally, breaking the quiet. She smiled. ''Did you like the story? It's great, huh?''

He frowned. ''It doesn't make sense. Why would a child seek out monsters?'' Darcy raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything. ''And,'' Loki continued, ''why would those monsters be so terrified that they would make a human child their king? Clearly, Max possessed a powerful hypnotic ability through which he could control-''

''Ok, buddy, cool it.'' Darcy put a hand up to stop him and tried hard to refrain from laughing. Maurice Sendak was probably watching from the Beyond and getting a huge kick out of this. She moved closer and sat down beside Loki on the floor. ''I guess when you think about it, you could probably look at this story a couple different ways. '' Darcy paused. How in the hell did you explain classic children's literature to a deity from another dimension? Maybe ask a librarian, but there didn't seem to be any around at the moment, so she would simply have to try her best.

''They have stories for children where you come from, right?'' she asked him. ''I mean, when you were little, like a gazillion light years ago or whenever, someone must have read to you.''

Loki nodded. ''Of course. But our stories were...different.'' A sudden, very pained look crossed his face. Darcy decided to try another approach, explaining, ''The little boy in the story just has a big imagination. He's mischievous and gets into trouble. So naturally, when he gets punished he's a little angry about it, and he pretends to be a monster because in his mind that's what he feels like. He imagines a world where he's the king, the baddest monster of them all.'' She paused and then smiled, adding, ''It makes sense, really, when you think about it.''

Loki seemed quite thoughtful for a few moments and considered everything Darcy had said before asking, ''But why would he leave? His actions make no sense. He's alienated and punished in his own world, so he journeys to another, enslaves its citizens and declares himself ruler, then decides to...to what...go back to where he came from?'' Loki shook his head. ''Why do that, when he could stay a king?''

_Oh dear_, thought Darcy. She really needed that coffee, right now. ''Loki,'' she groaned, putting a hand on his arm, ''seriously, you're reading waaay to deeply into this. And look,'' she plucked the book out of his hands and flipped to the final few pages, ''see, Max gets lonely and tired of being the king. He doesn't want to play the game anymore, it stopped being fun. And ''_he wanted to be where someone loved him best of all._'' He wasn't a monster. He wasn't a king. He was just a lonely, sensitive little boy who had a bit of a mischievous streak.''

Looking so deeply into her eyes that Darcy flushed and almost wanted to turn away, Loki asked, ''And what if you don't have a place like that? A place where someone loves you?'' She blinked and then struggled to her feet, unsure of how to answer. ''Well...then I guess you're just going to have to settle for...here. Because right now I think it's as good as you're going to get, my friend. We'll deal with your myriad of abandonment issues later, don't worry. Those are pretty common on this planet. And we've got lots of great self-help books. And alcohol. Alcohol always helps. But first coffee. And showers.''

Darcy turned to head back into the bedroom but paused a moment in the doorway. ''Do you...maybe...'' she fumbled with the hem of the oversized t-shirt that she'd thrown on after their earlier mattress romp. ''Do you want to stay here with me for awhile? Like, until you figure out what you're actually going to do while you're on Earth? I could help you maybe...assimilate. Teach you things about mortal life. You might wind up liking us more than you think.''

The god of Mischief closed the book and carefully set it back on the shelf. Then he got to his feet and faced her. ''I will most definitely consider it,'' he replied.

''Kay, well, while you're considering, I'm going to go get cleaned up. This has just all been a little...mind boggling.'' Darcy turned and walked into the bedroom.

He didn't say anything, he just nodded, his eyes following her as she disappeared through the doorway.

* * *

Darcy turned on the shower and climbed in, relaxing immediately under the heat of the water. She sighed deeply as she allowed it to soak into her weary muscles. A bit of a headache was still lingering from her overindulgence in wine the previous evening, but some aspirin and a cup of coffee would probably...

Her thoughts halted as she felt long fingers suddenly press against the sides of her head, followed by a deep, calming warmth. ''I thought that I might be able to assist you,'' a familiar, low voice breathed in her ear. ''You seemed to be in some discomfort.''

Darcy's stomach flipped. ''Yeah, thanks,'' she whispered. ''That feels a lot better.''

''Am I disturbing you?'' he asked, moving his hands from her head and trailing his fingers down her neck. ''Would you rather be alone?''

Absolutely not. She turned around slowly, swallowing hard. Darcy half-expected Loki to be invisible again, but he wasn't. He was still deliciously solid and beautiful with water sliding over the sharp planes of his face and down his body. She had the sudden urge to follow all those droplets of water with her tongue. Either Darcy wasn't being very transparent, or the god was reading her mind, because his eyes darkened with desire. ''No, you're not disturbing me,'' she answered, putting her arms around his neck and moved closer, pressing her wet body against his. Despite the heat of the water, there was a slight chill to Loki's skin that made every inch of hers tingle.

''You have such large, pretty eyes,'' he said, studying her face in that curious and intense way that he had.

''All the better to see you with, my dear,'' replied Darcy, smiling. ''It's nice to be naked in front of a guy who tells me that I have pretty eyes and is actually looking at my face.''

Loki smirked. ''Well, I was just starting actually. I planned on moving downward. Your forehead is rather unimpressive, so I began with your eyes, but let me continue.'' He stroked her cheek then pressed a finger against her mouth. ''You also have very soft, very full lips.'' He moved his face closer, his mouth hovering desperately near, almost touching but not quite as both his hands traveled down Darcy's body, one stopping to cup her breast, the other sliding still lower until it came to rest between her legs, pausing hesitantly. Darcy gave a little moan and shifted her hips forward a bit as her lips hungrily met his. She ached for him. He gently bit her lip and rolled a thumb over her tight nipple, the fingers of his other hand beginning to stroke her clit, teasing her before sliding inside of her, moving in a maddening rhythm. Darcy was sure she was about to go insane. How did he always manage to do this to her, to create this intoxicating mix of fear, exhilaration, and violently burning desire?

Her mouth moved away from his and she leaned back and braced herself against the shower wall, pulling Loki with her. He pressed his forehead against her and their gazes locked. The embrace was so intimate, suddenly, that Darcy wasn't sure if she wanted to close her eyes or look more deeply into his. But she left them open, let herself take in the moment. ''Don't leave me,'' she found herself whispering, though she wasn't even sure why she'd said those words. But regardless of why, he responded with intensity, lifting her easily and allowing her to wrap her legs around his waist and bring him inside her. She supposed that was his answer. And with every frenzied movement of their bodies, they were both assured that they weren't alone. That they both belonged.

* * *

''Thank you for the coffee, Dr. Foster,'' Agent Coulson said, setting his cup down onto the table.

Jane nodded wearily. ''You're welcome. But I really still don't see why you're here. I've told you, I have gone over all of the data from this particular event hundreds of times. I've calculated and recalculated and second guessed and tried to figure every existing angle. It was an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and by all accounts something or someone should have passed through it but there was no evidence. Nothing tangible.''

Coulson nodded. ''Of course. I don't doubt your competence as a scientist or a researcher, far from it. Let me simply suggest yet another angle from which to see this event. What if someone did travel to Earth via the bridge but knew how to deliberately conceal the fact that they did so?''

Erik shook his head. ''That's impossible.''

''Even if it was possible,'' added Jane, running a hand through her hair, ''who would have that kind of ability? And why would they be using it? That's not a very comfortable thought.''

Coulson took a long sip of his coffee and nodded slowly. ''No, Dr. Foster, it is not a comfortable thought at all.''


End file.
